I work for a well-known phone retailer in the US. While my main job is essentially as a sales representative, I also have been trained on basic phone fixes. If we can’t fix it in-store, then, if the customer has it under warranty or insurance, we can order a next-day replacement. Otherwise, they have to purchase a new phone. Many customers come in ready to fight so they don’t have to purchase a new phone when something is wrong with theirs.

Customer: “This d*** phone doesn’t work! My wife and my friends keep telling me they’re trying to call me but keep getting sent to my voicemail! No calls or texts ever come through! This is getting me in a lot of trouble! I need a new phone now and I’m not going to pay for it! This is not my fault! It’s your stupid faulty phone’s!” 

I take one look at his phone and point to the notification bar at the top.

Me: “Sir, your phone is in airplane mode. If you pull down from the top and touch the airplane icon, your texts and calls will come through just fine.”

The customer pulls down and taps the airplane icon. He suddenly gets a flood of texts and voicemails. 

Customer: “I’m not stupid! You made me look stupid! Thanks a lot for making me look like an idiot!”

After shouting he stormed out.

Manager: “He certainly doesn’t need our help to look like an idiot.”

Where I work, I deal in phone and Wi-Fi plans. A couple of days ago, a guy came in asking for a number to be ported to his SIM card.

Me: “What’s the number?”

Customer: “It’s my mom’s. I’ll go get her.”

He came back and his mother gave me her number to port. Turns out it was ported already.

We have different SIM cards; red is top up and blue is bill pay. She had a red. Now the fun began.

Mother: “So, if I call him, it can show up with my number?”

I nod and check her credit. It’s at zero with no top-up plans on. I explain this and she snaps.

Mother: “Um, no? It’s on a bill. This is a bill. The person I talked to online sent me this.”

Me: “Then they sent you the wrong one. That’s to top up. Want me to top it up?”

Mother: “Get me someone else. You know nothing. You clearly know nothing!”

Me: “There’s nobody else here, but I know that that isn’t for a bill.”

Mother: “I want to talk to someone else. I don’t care that nobody else is here. Make them be here because you’re incompetent. You gave me the wrong thing!”

Me: “Sorry, but I am the only. One. Here. We didn’t give you the wrong thing. You’ll have to call the helpline or talk to someone online because I can’t do anything else for you.”

She simply scoffed and stormed out.

I work at a well-known phone retailer in the US. While our main job in the store is to act as sales reps, we all are also capable of basic to intermediate phone fixes. A customer comes in and is greeted by my coworker.

Customer: “My earpiece speaker is awful! I can hardly hear anyone and I’m not sure what’s going on. There’s no water damage and this phone is brand new! I’ve only had it a day.”

My coworker takes the phone and looks closely at the speaker.

Coworker: “That’s weird. It looks fine. Here, let’s see if we can replicate the problem.”

He then takes out his own phone and calls the customer’s phone and tests the speaker. Sure enough:

Coworker: “You’re right. I can hardly hear what you’re saying. Let me look through the settings.”

My coworker then spends several minutes looking through settings and doing everything he can to troubleshoot, but he has no luck. 

Me: “Hey, [Coworker], do you want some help? I’m happy to take a look.”

It’s important to note that my coworker does not like to be “shown up.” If I could do something he couldn’t it would be absolutely embarrassing, especially since I’m female.

He looks at me like I’m stupid.

Coworker: “No, I’ve been through all the settings. I have no idea what’s going on. I’m just going to double-check with [Manager] before I order a replacement on warranty.”

He hands the phone back to the customer and comes back out with the manager. My manager takes one look at the phone and looks at [Coworker] with a “WOW, really?” kind of expression. Then, while maintaining eye contact with my coworker, [Manager] peels the plastic cover off of the phone and hands it back to him.

Manager: “Why don’t you try it now?”

In complete defeat, my coworker tests the phone, and to no one’s surprise, it works just fine. The customer laughs, thanks him, and walks out. My other coworkers, manager, and I are all practically rolling on the floor at this point.

Me: “You’re right. I’m SO glad you asked [Manager] for help on that! I don’t think I could have figured it out!”

Red-faced, [Coworker] stormed off to the back announcing that he was going on break.

I work for a retailer that provides mobile service. A customer comes in angry and upset.

Me: “How can I help you, ma’am?”

She begins to give me a very lengthy explanation about how she signed up for our mobile services with my coworker, and someone racked up over $600 in charges for a shared plan on her mother’s account.

Customer: “My mother is on a fixed income, and she can’t afford this. She’s going through a lot in life right now.”

I express my sympathy and attempt to help her out, just walking into the situation.

This is where it gets interesting.

Every time I try to read off what is on my computer system or billing ledger for her, she interrupts me and goes on a tirade about how that’s not what she signed up for or how the billing is incorrect.

As it turns out, the person berating me is the one who racked up all the charges. I tell her that.

Customer: “My son has autism, and he uses the phone nonstop.”

That’s not a problem, but it still doesn’t resolve the fact that she is the one who went over.

Customer: “All of the phones on that plan should be unlimited.”

I call up my coworker who helped them, and he confirm that they signed up for a shared plan. The woman denies this and tells me it was supposed to be unlimited when, in fact, my coworker says they insisted on the shared plan.

At this point, the customer switches to unlimited, but the charges remain because they are from a past billing statement.

Customer: “I want a refund for those charges!”

I have no authority to do so, especially for a $600-plus credit, so I email my supervisors and regional managers about what I should do.

All I can do at this point is send an email and provide her with some phone numbers to get her pointed in the right direction.

By this point, the woman is calmer and apologetic and thanks me for helping her.

Not thirty minutes later, she comes back in and interrupts me while I’m helping other customers. She starts berating me in front of them and shouts at me that no one will refund her. She forcefully puts her phone into my hands and has me speak to the phone representative.

Representative: “Since the charges were legitimate, we cannot refund her.”

The customer keeps shouting at me while I’m talking to this representative, and before I can get more information from them, she snatches her phone out of my hands.

Customer: “F*** this. F*** all of you! We’re going to the bank and cancelling the charges and switching carriers!”

And she abruptly left.

I used to work in a call center as tech support for a large, well-known phone carrier. This was back in the day when contracts were still a thing.

Me: “Thank you for calling [Company] tech support. How can I help you?”

Caller: “F*** YOU! YOU LYING SACK OF S***! YOU ARE GOING TO BUY ME A NEW PHONE!”

Oh, we are having that kind of day, are we? Okay.

I tried all the general de-escalation tactics for well over half an hour before I finally got the dude to calm down enough to actually speak with me. Believe it or not, telling him I was from Texas is what did it. After talking about how terrible the Cowboys were — I don’t even know how to play football — the customer opened up to me.

He got sugared into the store for a new phone. The guy had been way overdue for an upgrade, so the sales guy happened to sell him on the brand-new iPhone 4! But what kind of salesman stops there? No, sir. The deal isn’t done until you sell your soul. He also upheld him on EVERYTHING — the protection plan, the screen protector, phone case, EVERYTHING. This guy should receive the salesman of the year award. Do you want to know how he sold the phone case? He made it very clear how durable these cases were by telling him, “You could take a twelve-gauge to this phone case and it wouldn’t break.”

The customer took his brand-new iPhone and all his goodies and went back to the backwoods to hang out with his buddies. He then proceeded to tell me about all the beer they were drinking and how we ruined his day.

After he bragged about how strong the phone case was, his buddies called bulls***. This customer was ready to prove them wrong. He proceeded to take the shotgun out of his truck’s toolbox and show his buddies how it was done.

Needless to say, it’s pretty difficult to troubleshoot a phone that’s in thirty pieces. So, the customer was now stuck in a two-year contract, had no coverage for intentional damage under his protection plan, and had no phone.

The guy ended up escalating on me to my supervisor, who talked to him for two hours before transferring him to the store he bought it from.

PSA: Guys and gals, your phone isn’t bulletproof.